


Just Your Imagination

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Charmed
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 21:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Phoebe opened her eyes to the strange surroundings, the first thing she did was reach for the person whom she was used to sharing a bed with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Your Imagination

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pesha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pesha/gifts).



When Phoebe opened her eyes to the strange surroundings, the first thing she did was reach for the person whom she was used to sharing a bed with. Instead of the man she was expecting to find, she found that there was a tube in her arm that was leading to a bag on a pole near the bed.

_Hospital_. Why was she in a hospital and where was Hansel?

“Hansel?” Her throat hurt and she swallowed, trying again. “Hansel?”

Hansel didn’t come, but someone else that Phoebe knew very well did. Her vision was a little blurry, but she had no problems recognizing her sister. “Piper?”

“Oh thank god, Phoebe,” Piper said, squeezing her hand. “You had us so worried.”

“What happened? Why am I in the hospital?” She turned her head to look at the door and then looked back at Piper. “Where’s Hansel? Is he all right?”

Piper looked at her in concern, then shook her head. “I don’t know who Hansel is, Pheebs. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Phoebe tried to control the panic that was threatening to choke her. “You don’t know Hansel? But I’ve been with him for a while and we were trapped on a ship that we couldn’t escape…”

“Hansel,” another voice said. “Isn’t that the name of the man she kept talking about after she was injured after vanquishing Cole?”

“Paige?” Phoebe tried to lift her head, but her younger sister wouldn’t let her, coming to stand beside Piper and smoothing Phoebe’s hair back from her face. “Someone tell me what is happening!”

“Easy,” Piper said in her most soothing voice. “You need to stay calm or they won’t let us come back anytime soon.” Piper’s eyes filled with tears. “I thought I had lost you, Phoebe.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There was an attack at the manor,” Paige said quietly. “You got between the demon and Wyatt and were…” Paige’s voice broke and she swallowed, looking away.

“You were hurt pretty badly,” Piper explained. “We thought you were dead.”

“The demon turned you to a pile of ash, so what else were we supposed to think?” Paige’s voice was at border of being hysterical.

“Ash? But –“

“I know, it’s not making any sense. But Leo showed up with one of the elders and time was reset.” Piper said softly. “Then even when we vanquished the demon, you still didn’t wake up.” She blinked, trying to keep the tears from slipping free. “You’ve been in a coma for a few weeks.”

“But Hansel,” Phoebe insisted. “What happened to Hansel when time was reset?”

“Phoebe, you’re not making any sense,” Paige said. “Just like last time, this guy Hansel, he’s not real.”

“He is,” Phoebe insisted, trying to sit up. “He asked me to create a potion that would keep us connected and keep me from disappearing again. I created it, but I was giving it to and was going to give it to him at the dinner I had made for him.”

“You don’t cook, Phoebe,” Paige said with a small smile.

“I learned to. We were on a ship that we couldn’t leave.”

“Like the hotel you dreamed into existence as a way of dealing with Cole’s betrayal?”

Phoebe frowned at both of her sisters, pain in her face. “Hansel is real. I didn’t imagine him. He’s real and he loves me – witch and all.”

Piper looked at Paige for a moment and then she looked at Phoebe. “Leo said that sometimes when a witch goes through a lot of trauma, they can create a new, separate world in their mind. It’s where they retreat to and everything seems real, because in a way, for that witch, it is. Unlike with what the Avatars do, the witch does it as a way to escape when they have just been hurt too much.”

“I didn’t invent a world to escape to or make up Hansel in my mind, Piper.” Phoebe was surprised at the anger she was feeling towards her sisters right now. “After everything we’ve been through and have seen, why is it so hard for you to believe me when I tell you I was in a different world?”

“Because you never went anywhere!” Piper responded in as calm as a voice as she could. “You’ve been in this hospital since the attack.”

“I don’t know how to explain that, but I know what I saw and how I’ve lived the last few months,” Phoebe said stubbornly. “There was a ship called _Eternity_ and I was there with Hansel and his sister. None of us that were on the ship could go anywhere except off the ship at different ports. There was no way to get back to our homes from the ship or the ports.” He let her head fall back against the pillow. “It was as real as the world that The Source created when he was trying to get you to relinquish our powers, Piper.” Her voice was softer, now, but no less insistent.

“That was a real world that was created and I was trapped in,” Piper pointed out.

“So was _Eternity_.”

Piper started to say something, but Paige shook her head.

“This is not the place to have this discussion or to try and figure out what happened,” Paige said practically. “Phoebe needs rest and we need to talk to the Elders.”

“Why the Elders?”

“Because, if anyone can help us figure out what’s been happening to our sister whenever she’s injured and reunite her with this Hansel guy, it will be the Elders since I don’t think that there is anything in the Book about living in multiple worlds.”

“Then you believe me?”

“I don’t know what to believe, sis, but _you_ believe it and that’s what’s important to me.” She squeezed Phoebe’s hand gently. “But if I find out that someone has been trapping you in some world to toy with and your Hansel is nothing but a shape shifting demon, then I will vanquish all their asses.”

“Hansel isn’t a demon,” Phoebe said softly. “He hunted evil witches and had never heard about demons until he met me.”

“You fell in love with a witch hunter?!” Piper demanded in an angry whisper. “A demon didn’t cause you enough pain, you fall for a hunter?”

Phoebe glared at Piper. “Hansel only hunted evil demons and he had a very good reason to do so. An evil witch destroyed his family and almost killed him and his sister.”

“I cannot believe that you –“

“This is not the time, Piper,” Paige said, stopping the fight that was brewing between her sisters. “Phoebe has just woken up and we should be celebrating that she’s with us in mind and body again. When she’s given a clean bill of health and sent home, then we can question her and argue all day if you want.”

Piper sighed and then nodded. “You’re right.” She leaned down to hug Phoebe. “I’m sorry, Pheebs. But I am so glad you’re back with us. When I saw what the demon did to you and you didn’t respond after time was reset, I was so scared.” She swallowed and then straightened up. “We’ll get you out of here and back home as soon as we can, I promise.”

“I know,” she said quietly, hugging both of her sisters.

It wasn’t until they were gone and she was alone in the room that Phoebe let herself cry. “Hansel, I’m so sorry.”


End file.
